In 2008, I started a photography side hustle from my dorm room. My goal was to become a professional photographer. It wasn’t easy, especially at the height of the recession, but I’m glad I never gave up.
Today, at 35, I’m a self-made millionaire and run a wedding photography and education business, Katelyn James Photography. With my husband Michael, who joined as Chief Financial Officer in 2013, we’ve helped more than 100,000 people learn about photography.
In 2022, we brought in $240,000 a month in revenue — 80% of which I put back into the business. Roughly $230,000 of our monthly revenue was passive income from online courses and training materials.
I only work four hours a day now, and I shoot about four weddings a year.
From $750 to $160,000 in one day
In the first year of my side hustle, I was a full-time college student, but I still worked 40 or more hours a week.
My rates started low: $750 for six hours of photographing and editing. As my skills improved, I started charging more. And by 2013, I was earning six figures.
I was lucky to have a great mentor, Jasmine Star, who photographed my own wedding. I also took some online courses, attended workshops, and took on projects for free to build my portfolio.
But there wasn’t a lot of affordable photography training out there, so I started sharing tips on my blog. About eight years in, I realized online photography education could be a scalable business.
Through word of mouth and a consistent social media presence, I grew an email list of 7,600 photographers who wanted to learn from me. All the while, I developed outlines, designed a workbook via Adobe InDesign, and recorded and edited course content with help from a videographer friend.
In November 2015, Michael and I launched our first online training program to teach photographers how to edit and streamline their workflow. The course cost $397, a price point that was far more accessible than a semester’s worth of college photography classes.
Our goal was $15,000 in…
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